I'll Always Remain
by Toxic Treacle
Summary: "A search for the guilty. Who did this you may ask? Humanity wasn't just jealous of your power... they feared it... They used this incident as an excuse to hunt you down..." Being imprisoned by a world you wanted to protect... What kind of messed up world was this? A take on what happened in Shadow's numbered days of Sonic '06's desolate future.


**I'll Always Remain**

_**Confusion**_

_**Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…**_

The woman sat there, fiddling absent-mindedly with the drink in her hand as she slouched against the bar, obviously portrayed as the most bored bat in the universe.

"Well, so much for a fun holiday…" she muttered, bringing the glass to her lips and supping its contents stiffly. "…Why part of me said to take a break and shut this place up, I'll never know."

Daintily, the female brushed the surface in front of her with a free index finger, blinking as she brought it upwards to her eyes. She frowned at the slight bit of dirt on the glove, and gave a deadpanned look, before staring intently at the closest side of the bar.

"Looks like I gotta' do some cleaning, later…" she sighed with a depressed tone.

The last thing that wanted to be on her mind was cleaning Club Rouge…

Slowly pulling herself off the steel stool, the bat girl sipped the last of her drink, dusted off the counter slightly, and then placed her glass on top of the surface, before tugging at her long, white gloves and turning, again, to the clock, which ticked absent mindlessly away.

Twelve-o-clock, five minutes, and thirty seconds…

Thirty one seconds…

Thirty two seconds…

Thirty three seconds…

"Ugh…"

Normally, after this usual activity, she would head out, hoping to see if any jewels might get her attention.

Alas, she never succeeded with her searches… this boredom infuriated her to the pit… She was meant to be a treasure hunter for Pete's sake! And, right now, she fumbled in even finding the tiniest smidge of evidence that an emerald or gem was there…

She glanced behind her, glum as she eyed the safe through an open door to another room.

Maybe… maybe she'd found them all?

…

"Nah," she muttered, rolling her eyes as she hefted herself off the barstool, "the pretties are probably just being stubborn."

She maneuvered around the counter, walking both around and behind it, whilst grabbing a bottle from one of its many shelves.

The bottle was plain, held a normal, cream label, (which was surprisingly blank, not directly branded,) and inside, was an orange liquid. Nothing seemed very special about it, and the bat's expression verified this theory.

She carefully gripped her glass with one hand, and poured the liquid into it with the other, her face rigidly un-amused.

**BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA!**

Her hand slipped, and became soaking wet with the drink as shock dwindled within it. Growling with frustration, she shook her hand briskly, and then her head shot up, the glass window ahead of her already cracked. Several holes pierced it violently, and she ducked her head as the bottles behind her shattered into thousands upon thousands particles of glass.

"What the…?"

"**KILL!"**

That same, robotic voice echoed through her ears, and she swiftly crawled out of the bar, and to the door, her head low as she tried to stay out of gunfire.

The sound of bullets hitting glass reverberated about the room for a few moments, until all became silent.

Catching her breath, the bat pulled herself straight, though was still bending slightly afterwards; she was cautious of the attacks as it was. Leaning on the door for a minor moment, she swallowed, before opening it a crack, revealing the world of outside.

Burning. Wrecked. Empty.

As these few words could come to light in most bleak situations, so could hope, in this otherwise perfect world. A world that lacks most sanity… this could easily describe the dreaded future.

The future everyone had tried so hard to escape.

That's why Rouge's club lacked business, thereafter… The ruined future proved too much for even the most popular businesses.

Buildings were wrecked, cars were set brightly alight, lava consumed most previously watered areas, and the despair-filled sunset hovered over the horizon, its background a hint of orange and blood red.

At once, the bat became depressed, knowing why she'd decided to close up in the first place… Why the place even meant anything to her, anymore, she didn't know… but, right now, it was her humble abode, as it was her deadbeat business.

"**DESTROY!"**

Her gaze shot to down below, and as she stood at the peak of the stairs, the sunlight made her squint before finally diving back deep into the desolate hills. And, at last, she saw what was making the racket below.

A robot, equipped with the usual rockets, was making its way down the street, red, metallic skin still faintly see-able as night approached. A claw glistened a moment, before dimming as the sun was hidden from view. It suddenly changed, into that of a machine gun, which Rouge knew oh so well.

'…Omega…' She pondered over the event, since she had not seen her teammate in what seemed to be forever.

He was slow and steady as he proceeded forward robotically, limbs twisting as he eyed the wasteland of buildings about him.

"…Omega?"

**BANGBANGBANGBANG!**

Screaming silently, she ducked as a machine gun was abruptly aimed in her direction, shooting repeatedly until she didn't move anymore. She bit her lip as she concealed herself from the metal one's view with the aid of a brick fence. She closed her eyes tight, hesitant to so much as lift her head.

Down below, the machine's red eyes watched the brick wall for a moment, forever eyeing it as a tuff of white fur slipped into his view.

…White fur dominating skin…

This wasn't his objective.

Rouge's blue eyes watched as the E-robot turned away, who was obviously aware of her presence, despite initial hostility. Her eyes never once strode away from his being as he took off in another direction.

Pursing her lips, the female mulled over a matter in her head: whether to follow him or not.

They were a team, so it was only natural she was worried about him… not to mention, she was curious of why he tried to blow her head off.

Straightening fully, she turned heel, preparing to take after him before she lost him for good.

"…**He's not idly walking about, you know…"**

Her coat stood on end.

She felt the familiar, sinister voice drill through her ears, and this being's voice enough was all that was needed to make her more paranoid than she originally was.

Closing her eyes, she turned around once more, and then, cautiously opened them, coming face to face with…

Nothing.

…

'Hmm…'

The bat took another deep breath, before spinning around to continue with her goal.

**. . .**

The roads clattered and cracked under the agent's feet as she darted across them, adrenalin and a need for knowing dwelling in her body. The cobblestones were more or less burned to crisp, yet still strong enough to hold thousands of feet at one time, although a few of them were well on their way to cracking into nothingness. The walls, once plastered with random graffiti, had fallen to the ground, leaving massive holes and enabling random beings to look inside the now deserted houses…

A flame flared out from one of the holes, and high-pitched shrieking filled the air, and Rouge's sensitive ears.

Well, not totally deserted.

The bat dived behind a wall as soon as the noise had sounded, and she remained there, still for moment as her ears stopped ringing and her heart rate steadily decreased back to a more regular beating. As she sat there, she pondered over one matter.

Omega.

Why he was suddenly here… out of the blue… she had no vague idea… And those words he had chosen to utter… they seemed so feral. Kill, destroy… they seemed too much like his old self; the old self that was totally intent on killing Eggman and his hordes of robots, but they weren't around… as far as she knew. She hadn't seen the Doctor in ages, nor Sonic himself. She couldn't get her head around it.

If he was on a mission, she wouldn't have understood that either. G.U.N had been out of commission for a while now, and if they had chosen to re-establish themselves, it was far too late…

The shriek died away, and she poked her head around the corner, seeing a lava-like bird dive back into its hiding spot, awaiting unfortunate passer-bys.

Picking herself up, Rouge sighed.

Whatever this mess was, she'd find out eventually.

She looked up, seeing a climb-able ladder attached to several, metal-criss-crossed balconies, and she straightened. Jumping up onto a random dumpster, (which was surprisingly stable despite all violent measures,) she gripped the bottom of it, hobbling before regaining her balance and pulling herself up it. She tugged at the bars as she crawled up them, wings in slight flight as to aid her balance, (she would fly, but any flapping sounds may alert random predators of her presence, and may tell others she was best fit for lunch…). The walkway seemed quite rusty, and this was evident when it gave a creak, making the bat almost fall off it, had she not regained herself. Sighing mentally, she looked up the barely stable stairs, and then made her way up them.

. . .

He stood, still and silent as he stared at the spectacle.

Clouds. Light. Sunshine. Those things he hadn't seen in a while.

At first, he thought he was hallucinating. At first, he thought it was merely his mind's imagination stretching too far. But then…

He felt it. Heat seemed to warm his body in the sunlight; although such a thing seemed significantly indifferent to that of lava, the glow the sun radiated, surrounded by blue-hueing clouds, was soft on his tanned muzzle. Much softer than the scorching temperatures of Iblis' footsteps.

He folded his arms at the sight, leaning back on the end of a long-since abandoned ventilation system with faint amusement glimmering in his eyes.

It was so carefully put, that a plot that brought back some happiness to this dystopian world that could involve some idiot tripping over something was evident, or something along that line…

His features shaped into a solemn, serious expression.

Almost everyone in this world had lost so much hope… not that he cared for the humans' lost optimism, but no one was bothered to even mind they were in the apocalypse anymore. They scurried away into their little homes, with nothing but savage monsters lying in wait for them…

He heard their terrified screams at night, but he didn't once attempt to locate them, fearing he would only find nothing but blood-spattered corpses and spilled organs… and blood reminded him blatantly of…

Thoughts stopped, and the hedgehog shook his head dismissively, before retracing back to a more suitable subject.

…Night… it was so peaceful once… so… serene… Now, it was filled with screeches that were owned by humans succumbing to bloody murder.

The next morning, he would expect certain people to be routinely scurrying about, looking for rations of some sort… yet, he never saw them. At least, not in their plain, original shape… he'd recognized quite a few decapitated heads hanging limply in those odd lizards' mouths… Not exactly a pretty sight, is it?

He never understood what use he would be to the world now… He knew not of how to solve this conflict. Even if the sun was shining so gracefully, that hardly solved the dealings he had to go through…

Furrowing his brow, he stared at his shoes, as if expecting them to make this world somewhat perfect once more.

**Thud… thud… thud…**

Pointy ears perked at the noise, and the hedgehog turned his head in a half-bothered manner.

Immediately, he recoiled from his relaxed state, before pulling himself up, paranoia suddenly kicking in: his fists were clenched, and his eyes were narrowed. Although he stood calmly still, he was on cautiously high alert.

"**Shadow…"**

His defensive stance loosened as he saw a metal creature staring back at him, red coat glistening in the daylight.

"Omega, don't sneak up on me like—"

He stopped dead, looking at said being's hand as it was swapped with a machine gun.

"…Omega?"

It was reloaded, as if it had shot moments before, and now… it was pointing directly at his head.

"Omega…" The Ultimate Life Form paled incredibly, staring at the action as if it was the most ludicrous thing he'd ever witnessed."What's wro—?"

"**ELIMINATE: PROJECT SHADOW."**

. . .

**Hai, peoples!**

**Welcome to another story of mine… It was originally meant to be a One-Shot, but I got carried away as usual…**

**Basically, it's my take on what happened during that "bad" future, where Shadow was claimed to be sealed away by Omega. So, you could say it's a sort of redux, or what-if, (Some of you should know, I love what-ifs, XD ).**

**Oh, and the timeline isn't that far in, (not up to Silver's 200 years, anyway…) but shortly after Iblis' release when the Egg Carrier crashed… I don't know; I don't get it. Something happened and Iblis somehow got released when that… that vessel died… well, you know what I mean. XD **

**Expect Shadouge to play a big role in this later on; it always does. X3 **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. ^^ And I hope you will later on.**


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